Mark Hamill on STAR WARS Trailer, Beards and Ball Droids

Mark Hamill has been out doing press interviews for NBC’s upcoming Christmas special Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas, a stop-motion animated musical based on the original Broadway play and the 2003 movie. So of course the press (in this case Yahoo! Movies) were enthusiastically asking questions all about that; of course NOT! Obviously people were asking him about a potential reboot of The Guyver and what he thinks about Star Citizen, given that he was involved with its Wing Commander predecessors. Oh, and some Star Wars: The Force Awakens thing.

When asked if he was surprised at being left out of the teaser trailer:

“Not really. This is about the new generation of characters; I think that’s the most important thing. It’s the opening act of a whole new approach to the storytelling. So I never thought that the stories would be – first of all, I never thought I’d be involved in it again, period. And then when George [Lucas] said that they wanted to do more, I rightly assumed that it wouldn’t be our story, because we had a beginning, a middle, and an end. This must be our offspring and the current generation, with us there lending the kind of support that Peter Cushing and Alec Guinness did in the original. So no, that didn’t surprise me. And I mean, I’m one of those people where I just think, “Keep me out of it. I’ll ruin it, I’m sure!” [Laughs] I’ll show up and just ruin the whole thing.”

He touched on his initial hesitation to return the franchise and his surprise that Harrison Ford agreed to:

“I don’t want that pressure! It’s too much pressure! You know, because I said to George, “Have you really thought this through? Because maybe it’s not such a great idea.” But I had a feeling, I said, “You know what – if there’s a weak link, if Carrie [Fisher] or Harrison [Ford] decides they don’t want to do it, there’s an out. Because it’s all or nothing. It should be all of us or none of us.” So I was ready to go either way. And now that we’re all in, we’ll see what happens.”

“Well, you know, he was someone that was unpredictable. I hadn’t seen him in years; I didn’t know what his feelings were. I know he’s sometimes grown impatient with people that don’t want to focus on what he’s doing currently and want to go stroll down memory lane. God knows, I’m used to that sort of thing. But who knew? And for him to jump back in so enthusiastically, I was delighted. It’s a wonderful character. Everybody loves Han Solo.”

I don’t. I think he’s a scruffy-looking nerf herder. Then they got down to one of the important issues, that magnificent beard he’s been sporting lately:

“That is what I call my contractually obligated beard. Listen: I think they look fine on other people. It’s just not me. I mean, I never got used to it. But face foliage is almost a part of the costume. And it does bring a gravitas, perhaps unearned [ludicrous suggestion!], but nevertheless, it makes a statement that they wanted to make, and I’m more than happy to oblige them.”

He also confirmed that the droid we were looking at in the trailer was in fact a physical prop and not a CGI creation, and that he gets to play with all the cool toys:

“They never cease to amaze me with what they’re able to come upwith, you know? I said, “How are you ever gonna top R2-D2, the most adorable droid in movie history?” And then they have this new one. I can’t even tell you his name [we now know it’s called BB-8], but you saw it in the trailer. And when they were demonstrating how they did this thing, live on set — because it’s not CGI, that’s a live prop — I was just amazed. They let me play around with it. [Laughs] I was running it all around at the creature shop up in Pinewood. I’m telling you, it’s an absolute delight. And not having thought that I’d ever go back there, to go back into that world, is just – I get the chills. It’s just so much fun.”

When they asked him about his favourite part of the trailer, he gave a heart-felt answer:

“But the great thrill for me was watching the video of fans watching the trailer. Did you see that? Oh my god! I forget how happy this stuff makes a certain segment of our population. I mean, I really was moved to see these people that happy. It was wonderful. So for me, that was the most memorable thing about it — the reaction more than just the minute-and-a-half that it’s on the screen.”

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a year far far away from release. How are we going to survive that long?

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